Contents

Plot

It's Thanksgiving Day and Chandler suggests that they use their wedding china for dinner, but Monica is too nervous that something might happen to them. After some persuading, she agrees to use them for dinner, however she stays very nervous.

While watching the parade on TV, Joey sees the float with the stars of the popular day-time soap Days of our Lives and suddenly remembers that he was supposed to be there. Worried because the producers spoke to him directly telling him not to be late, he decides he has to come up with a really good excuse. The problem is that he is a terrible liar (and for some reason incorporates raccoons into all of his lies).

Meanwhile, after having not seen each other for a year, Rachel's other sister, Amy, shows up unexpectedly to ask for a hair straightener. It quickly becomes obvious that Amy is a very inconsiderate person. She seems to know nothing about Rachel's baby, Emma, and calls her Emmett thinking she's a boy. She does not recognize Ross, but remembers an old "geeky" boyfriend who she describes as Rachel's "fat friend's brother with that bad afro". Amy gets a phone call from her boyfriend who tells her that he cannot see her today because his wife has come back into town. Amy, who was looking forward to her Thanksgiving dinner of sushi, is very upset claiming it is "almost not even worth dating married guys". Rachel in turn invites her over to Monica's Thanksgiving dinner. While there, Amy manages to insult everyone. She mistakenly believes that Phoebe's name is "Emma" and that Emma's name is "Emily". She soon decides that it would be incredible is Ross and Rachel died because it would mean she would inherit Emma. They tell her however that they had already planned on giving her to Monica and Chandler. Amy responds "Who?" to which Ross says "You're in their apartment". Amy is extremely offended by this and her mood becomes even worse.

"I think that everyone should cut their food like this."

During dinner, Monica stays extremely hostile for the sake of the plates. She goes to the extent of not giving Joey one of them, convincing him that his less-fancy plate is a "special plate" and that whoever gets it "wins". Amy continues to complain about not getting Emma. She asks if she will get her if Monica dies, as well. Chandler interrupts saying that he would get her in that case. Ross and Rachel say that Emma would, in fact, go to Jack and Judy Geller if that were the situation. A verbal fight ensues about Chandler thinking it's because he won't be a good enough parent to take care of Emma on his own, even though he "managed to survive what it is killed the three of you!" It turns out, that if Chandler were to die Monica wouldn't have to give Emma up, upsetting him even more. The rest of the night, Chandler sulks on his own.

Rachel and Amy fight.

Meanwhile, the producers of DOOL have left Joey a message asking him why he wasn't at the parade, telling him that everyone is very mad. Phoebe comes up with the lie of "I had a family emergency", which Joey decides is perfect. Amy, still very mad at Rachel, starts a fight with her. It begins as another verbal argument, but soon escalates into a full-on fight. Monica tries frantically to put away the wedding china, but one is knocked off the table, anyway. At this point, Chandler intervenes. He tells Rachel and Amy to control themselves and to apologize; he acts much like a parent would. Ross commends him for it and tells him that if he, Rachel and Monica die that he can take care of Emma. Monica leaves the apartment to get the pie (only one is left because of Joey) while mourning over her lost plate.

Chandler breaks all of the plates.

Rachel apologizes to Amy and, instead of letting her have Emma, tells her that she can use her Ralph Lauren discount. Amy gets teary eyed and hugs her. Emma begins crying and Chandler, extremely confident in himself, offers to change her. As he pulls the diaper bag off of the chair, he brings the box of wedding china with him, causing them all to break. He exclaims, "Well what do you know, I guess I'll be the one who dies first".

Later that night, he manages to tape up the box without letting Monica know they are broken. Joey walks in and thanks Phoebe for the lying advice and that the producers "totally bought it". Monica wishes the plates a goodbye and Joey lets out "Oh you told her you broke all the plates, huh?"

Supporting Cast

Crew

Trivia

General

Christina Applegate won an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for this episode.

It is revealed in the DVD commentary that the original plan was to bring Reese Witherspoon back as Rachel's sister Jill, however she was unavailable, thus Applegate was cast as Rachel's other sister. Also, Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston had a lot of tension amongst each other the last time they were on set, hence why Witherspoon only had one appearance.

In the uncut DVD version of the episode, extra scenes during Rachel and Amy's fight include Amy spitting on Rachel's hand, and Ross and Joey egging on Rachel.

Before this episode, Matt LeBlanc had previously worked with Applegate on several episodes of her former series, Married ... With Children.

Applegate was the star of Jesse, another show that aired on NBC in the time slot following Friends from 1998 to 2000; that series was also produced by David Crane, Marta Kauffman, and Kevin S. Bright.

Goofs

When Chandler and Joey are watching the Thanksgiving parade, Chandler says that Muskogee, OK is only four hours away from Tulsa. In reality Muskogee to Tulsa is 50 miles (80 km), about an hour's drive.

In the scene where Rachel is introducing Amy to the rest of the gang in Monica's apartment, there are napkins on the plates on the table. However in the next shot nothing is on the plates.

In the scene where Rachel and Amy are fighting, a few seconds before they break the first plate, the flaps on the box Chandler is holding are open. However seconds later the flaps are now closed with Chandler still holding the box.

When Rachel and Amy are fighting and Phoebe says to Joey, "Should we stop this?," Joey is mouthing the same line right before saying his own line.

When Chandler breaks Monica's dishes, Emma's carseat rotates and then switches back between shots.

When Rachel and Amy are fighting, Chandler is looking at the wall and not paying attention to the fight.